I Tell Ya' Herbie

     It's time for our weekly look at the college football world- I Tell Ya' Herbie as we enter week one.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            College Football needs to take more advantage of "week zero" and add more (and better) matchups.

College Football has a two-week head start on the NFL, and fans are desperate to watch some football, so a few more games with impact would not only be welcomed but would also draw good ratings.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Ohio State fans have built up animosity toward Fox due to the network's decision to place the Buckeyes' biggest games at noon, but there could be more on its way if you are a YouTubeTV subscriber.

The streaming service and Fox's carriage agreement have run out, just in time for Ohio State's season opener against Texas in a battle between two of the country's most popular programs.

While these things usually are figured out before a deadline, imagine the vitriol towards both parties if the game is unable to be seen by the rabid fans of both schools.

Editor's Note: A "short-term" extension has been agreed to by both parties to allow the game to be covered.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            After a tepid week zero (other than Iowa State-Kansas State in Ireland), week one has three top ten matchups with top-ranked Texas against third-ranked Ohio State, sixth-ranked Notre Dame facing number ten Miami, and ninth-ranked LSU visiting fourth-ranked Clemson.

The one I find most interesting (other than personal interest) is LSU and Clemson.

Clemson has slipped a bit under Dabo Swinney since the start of the NIL era, and Brian Kelly hasn't won an opener in his LSU tenure.

Add that both teams' quarterbacks (Clemson's Cade Klubnik and LSU's Garrett Nussmeier) are regarded as first-round talents in the next NFL Draft, and you have a very interesting game.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Trap game? It might be one in Ames, Iowa, as South Dakota travels to face Iowa State,

The Coyotes made the I-AA semi-finals last season, and while the Cyclones won a big one over Kansas State, they have to travel home from Dublin and play the next week against a team that might surprise them one week before they play in-state rival Iowa.

                            

                            

                             

                  

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge is very light this week with two fights on Showtime, which is a card that isn't up to the usual quality of the network and shows a sign of what could be an issue in the future.

The main event offers the return of former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara against Brian Castano of Argentina, who holds one of the WBA's minor titles.
Lara, who lost a narrow split decision last year to Jarrett Hurd in a title unifying match, was unusually entertaining in his fight with Hurd and it'll be interesting to see if that was Lara engaging offensively against Hurd was a sign of an aging fighter without the legs to fight in the style that he once had excelled in or did Lara choose to fight in such a manner because he thought it gave him the best chance to win.
Castano lacks a win over a top ten contender with his only win over even a fringe contender, an unimpressive split decision over Michel Soro last July.
However, Castano was a highly rated amateur with victories over Errol Spence and Sergey Dereyvanchenko and appears to have a background that one would at least think could give Lara a run for his money, should the Hurd fight prove to be the last stand for the Cuban as an elite fighter.

I'm not sure Lara-Castano is a true Showtime-level main event, but I'm definitely sure that the co-feature lacks that panache' with a top-five heavyweight in a stay busy fight.
Luis "King Kong" Ortiz is a top-five heavyweight that almost knocked out WBC champion Deontay Wilder before being stopped himself in a great fight and will be fighting for the third time since that loss (Wilder has fought only once), but isn't taking any chances with another fight against a marginal fringe contender in Christian Hammer.
Hammer has losses to Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, and Marius Wach, in other words, so each time the competition increased to the world-class level, Hammer gets knocked out.
This one really shows the dip in quality of late and gives me pause enough to write this- Does PBC and Al Haymon have a deep enough bench to give two partners in Showtime and Fox the type of boxing that both deserve?

The Showtime season is off to a slow start (to be generous) with Gervonta Davis one round crushing of smaller and overmatched Hugo Ruiz and even though Ruiz was a late substitution, I think the original fight vs Abner Mares was the same type of fight vs a smaller and outgunned opponent for Davis, although the more established Mares might have lasted a few more rounds, leading up to Lara-Castano after the Saturday card no fights are on their schedule until mid-April and that is a female fight (I'm not a fan of ladies boxing) of note between Clarissa Shields and Christina Hammer.

Fox has been showing name fighters from the promotion thus far with Keith Thurman and Leo Santa Cruz, but both were against essentially showcase opponents, although Josesito Lopez badly hurt Thurman in a strong effort to the point of making one wonder-if Thurman had been facing a top ten opponent, would he have survived?
Next week's WBC welterweight title bout with Shawn Porter against Yordanis Ugas is a more competitive fight and Danny Garcia's April fight against Adrian Granados could be another showcase fight, although Granados has exceeded expectations in the past when seemingly overmatched.
PBC has increased the quality of cards for FS1 with two main events already in the books (Caleb Plant-Jose Uzcategui and Anthony Dirrell-Avni Yildirim) and two others scheduled for March (Lamont Peterson-Sergey Lipinets) and April (Peter Quillin-Caleb Truax) that are of equal to better quality than what Showtime has been receiving thus far.

What makes this worse for boxing fans is that Showtime has the best announcing crew ( I'm not a huge Mauro Ranallo fan, but he is not terrible when he keeps the canned puns to himself and Al Bernstein with Paulie Malignaggi are the best color commentators in the game) and the best production as well, so it is missed when their program isn't getting the best fights.
The involvement of Fox (who has the worst blow by blow man arguably in decades in Chris Myers) in boxing can be a good thing as a network presence can attract new fans, but hopefully, their rise won't mean the beginning of demise at Showtime.

In the Boxing Challenge, Ramon Malpica leads me 41-40.

Junior Middleweights. 12 Rds
Erislandy Lara vs Brian Castano
Both; Lara Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights.12 Rds
Luis Ortiz vs Christian Hammer
R.L.: Ortiz KO 5
TRS: Ortiz KO 3